MAA18
MAA18 (Mobile Air Artillery 18, or May Day 18) Faction: UNSC Description of the weapon: The MAA18 was put in production during the Insurrection when the UNSC needed more mobile air vehicles as older variants were slowly becoming obsolete. Drawing most of its features from the ancient AC130, it fills the role of artillery except far more mobile and easier to manage. During the insurrection it was armed with two 175mm artillery cannons, one on each side and four GUA-23/AW/Linkless Feed Autocannon's, two in the front and two in the back that use 30mm ammunition and was tasked with flattening buildings occupied with rebels and neutralizing infantry without losses. It earned the nick name 'May Day 18' because it was thought it would bring death to any rebel that it flew over. Although this is no longer the case in the human - Covenant war it still stuck. This was when they UNSC almost always had air superiority; it was only lightly coated in armor mostly meant for small arms and only flew out of rocket range at most times, out of custom they only flew flanked with two sparrow hawks. After the Covenant destroyed most of the UNSC's prospects of air superiority and it became apparent that it was necessary to use more precautions. The MAA18 had two of the machine guns stripped in lieu of far more heavy armor. It is very resilient to small arms fire and can occasionally deflect rockets. It can also take a few more plasma shots before they burn through and hit something important. It also has more sparrow hawks in its escort (around four) and is normally only seen when the UNSC manages to get air superiority. How does it work: The MAA18 uses six upgraded pelican thruster's which are heavily plated in armor, although the thruster's are powerful they come at a cost that would prevent their use in pelicans. The heat emissions manage to make it unsafe for people who would be as close to it as a pelican would force them to be, if shot they also can be very dangerous, ending in disastrous explosions which would be capable of destroying a pelican. This is why they are heavily plated in armor and fly high. The MAA18 has four crew members, a pilot, and two copilots. One of the co pilot's manages the machine guns, the other targets and fires the cannon. The other makes sure the guns stay loaded and maintained. It flies high in order to remain out of danger from ground fire and is normally only used in situations of air superiority. Who will use it: Specialized pilots who are supposed to fly gun ships. Similar to the vulture. Advantages/Disadvantages: The MAA18 is very powerful, easily flattening buildings and mowing down infantry with ease. It can also fly high enough to both scout on enemy positions and not be seen easily by the naked eye. It can also accurately fire due to on board computers which aid in the pilots aiming. It is also highly versatile, it can easily become many things and can be used for scouting operations as well. However, it requires pilots with special training and the cannons, guns, armor and thruster's end up adding up into high prices, making them difficult to produce. They are also vulnerable to anti air and air craft like banshees. It also consumes fuel at a fast rate due to the requirements of the thruster's and due to that they can only fly for limited times.